


ending with scabs

by adamganseys



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Fluff, Grocery Shopping, Grocery Store, M/M, Post-The Raven King, Pynch Week, Shopping Carts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 17:44:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7811275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adamganseys/pseuds/adamganseys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Ronan speeds them down the lot, the night all around them, the wind rushing through Adam’s hair, Ronan’s joyful shout ringing in his ear, he wishes that time would stop, just for a little while, the way it used to in Cabeswater.</p><p>(Pynch Week Day 6: Grocery Store; Ronan and Adam go grocery shopping together for the first time since getting together. Awkwardness about condoms and idiot boys in shopping carts are involved.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	ending with scabs

**Author's Note:**

> Isn't it funny how I planned to write a thing for each day of Pynch Week and had outlines for everything and then..... ended up only writing two. I'll definitely write something for tomorrow, and hopefully will finish at least two more for Saturday. Sorry about that. 
> 
> (Also, I know this is not how grocery store employees behave when boys are looking at condoms but. Just humor me.)

It’s a Thursday night in early December, and Adam is planning to get ahead on his homework since he has a little more free time than usual that day. That is, until he hears a knock on his apartment door.

“Parrish,” Ronan says when Adam opens the door. “Come on.” 

Adam stares at him. “Where?”

“Grocery store. I need to get some real food for Opal. The psychics said that she can eat some bark and metal and shit without it harming her, but she needs the same nutrition that normal kids do. I don’t have anything she needs in the Barns.” 

“Why do you need me for that? And don’t you just dream most of the food there?” 

“Yeah, exactly. She’s in the real world now. She should eat real world food.” Ronan pointedly ignores the former question. 

“Okay, but did you drive all the way from the Barns just for that? Aren’t there other places where you can get food near there?”

Ronan scowls. “What’s your point, Parrish?”

Adam lips turn up in a knowing half-smile, and Ronan rolls his eyes before turning and climbing down the stairs to the BMW. Adam grabs a jacket and follows without hesitation. 

“Did it occur to you to bring Opal along for this since you’re getting food that’s _for her?_ ” Adam asks once they’re on the road.

“Yes, it did occur to me.”

Adam gives Ronan a withering look, which he responds to with a shit-eating grin.

Adam eyes Ronan’s hand on the gearshift, and making a decision, he links his fingers around Ronan’s wrist, his thumb rubbing circles into the smooth skin. He feels Ronan’s pulse spike, just a little bit, but otherwise the boy gives no indication that he noticed. They’ve only been together for a month, and everything still feels new and scary and exciting. 

They reach the store in half the time they should, with Ronan driving at least forty miles over the speed limit. It’s the same place they went to shop for Gwenllian that day, and Adam feels a strange sense of nostalgia for that time, when Persephone and Aurora were alive and the demon hadn’t taken Adam’s hands and Ronan hadn’t almost been unmade. 

The first thing Ronan throws into their shopping cart, rather forcefully, is a box of Lucky Charms.

Adam stares at the box with disdain. “You said she needs _healthy_ food.” 

“No, I said she needs the same shit that normal kids need. Normal kids eat this crap. I ate this crap and it was fucking delicious.”

Adam shakes his head and gives up trying to reason with Ronan, instead picking up some granola bars and fruit to make up for the stomachache that Ronan’s food choices will probably give her. 

Adam watches the way Ronan throws things into the cart almost angrily, putting on a show of aggressiveness for no apparent reason, and he feels absurdly fond at the way it’s so ridiculous and so _Ronan_.

They make their way through the aisles, halfheartedly arguing over the food choices (“You don’t need to pick up Twinkies _and_ Brownie Bites, Ronan” “Well you didn’t need to pick up both apples _and_ bananas but you don’t see me complaining do you?”) and within fifteen minutes, their cart is nearly overflowing.

When they reach the health and hygiene aisle, Ronan grabs some shaving products and toothpaste that he’s running out of, and Adam looks around until the section next to the shaving creams catch his eye.

He stares shamelessly at the boxes of Trojans, with labels like “Magnum” and “Double Ecstasy” and “Pleasure Packet”. He considers dropping a box in their cart just to see Ronan’s reaction.

They haven’t done more than kissing without shirts thus far, but Adam has sure thought about doing a lot more. Images of bare skin against bare skin and hands trailing over navel hair and lips on thighs fill Adam’s brain, and he has to clench his hands into fists to control his reactions.

“Do you need some help there?”

Adam startles at the voice, as the person had come up on the side of his deaf ear. Standing beside him is a middle-aged woman with a too-wide smile and extremely curly red hair. It takes him a moment to realize that she’s referring to the condoms. 

Ronan, who was previously staring thoughtfully at all the different shaving gels, completely oblivious to Adam’s sexual frustration, looks over at the voice. He raises his eyebrows when he notices the specific items that Adam is standing in front of. Adam looks away.

“Uh,” is all Adam can stutter at the lady’s question.

“Oh, don’t be shy now. Let me just give you the rundown here.” Then, distressingly, she begins to talk about the difference between the types of condoms. Adam actually listens, despite his embarrassment. It can’t hurt to be informed, right? 

After her spiel, she turns to Ronan. “What about you, sir? I’m sure a handsome boy like you has a girlfriend. You know, it’s buy two get two free today.”

Ronan, ever the innocent Catholic, lets out a choking sound. Adam has to bite his lip to keep from laughing.

“I think he’s alright, ma’am,” Adam says when Ronan doesn’t answer.

“Alright then. Let me know if y’all need any help.”

When the lady is finally out of sight, Adam finally gives in and bursts into laughter. Ronan glares at him, which makes him laugh even harder, and he has to press his face into Ronan’s shoulder to stifle his giggles. 

“Come on, Parrish, we still have shopping to do,” Ronan says gruffly, but when Adam looks up, his mouth is twitching too.

“Yeah, Lynch, we do. Want to buy some shaving cream for your girlfriend, too? Or maybe there’s a lingerie section in here.” Adam tries to keep a straight face, but ultimately fails.

Ronan swats at his arm, and Adam responds with an elbow to his ribs, and then they’re scuffling with each other until an employee tells them to stop.

Still smiling, Adam takes one look at the display of condoms and picks up a box that seemed adequate. Ronan gapes at him as he drops it into their cart, and Adam hopes he isn't blushing.

“What?” He asks innocently. “We’ll probably need them eventually, right?”

Ronan is speechless for a few seconds, and then he breaks into something that’s between an unshielded grin and a lecherous smirk, even as his ears and neck turn bright red.

“Yeah, Parrish. We will.”

“Okay, then,” Adam says, before ducking his head and bumping Ronan’s shoulder with his own.

As the cashier scans the items, Ronan’s hand casually slips into Adam’s. Adam intertwines their fingers and squeezes their hands. If the cashier notices, she doesn’t comment.

They exit the store and drop the bags into the trunk of the car. The parking lot is empty aside from one other car, and Adam can see what Ronan is going to say before he even opens his mouth.

“No,” Adam says, knowing it won’t make a difference.

“Get in there, Parrish,” Ronan says, pointing at the cart.

“We’ve already graded this lot, remember? What’s the point of a repeat?”

Ronan continues pointing.

Adam sighs and gets inside the cart.

Once they’re a good enough distance away from the BMW, Adam says, “We’re going to die.” 

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Ronan says, and then drops a kiss onto Adam’s head.

Adam’s lips turn up in a surprised smile, and he looks up at the other boy, his neck craning back at an angle that’s almost painful.

“Hi,” Adam says.

“Hi,” Ronan says, voice softer than usual.

Adam brings his hands up to Ronan’s head and pulls him down for a kiss. It’s the first time they’ve kissed that night, and Adam feels it all over his body. It’s over too soon, the position not being the most convenient for this sort of thing, but Adam feels undone nonetheless.

“Ready?” Adam is pleased to hear that Ronan’s voice is a little breathless.

“As I’ll ever be,” Adam replies drily.

As Ronan speeds them down the lot, the night all around them, the wind rushing through Adam’s hair, Ronan’s joyful shout ringing in his ear, he wishes that time would stop, just for a little while, the way it used to in Cabeswater.

They end up side by side on the ground with bruised elbows and scabbed knees, breathing hard, and the whole thing feels familiar and new all at once. Adam turns his head to look at Ronan, and he is once again taken aback by the sheer happiness on his face.

Ronan looks even more stunning than usual in the glow of the moonlight, and Adam’s breath catches as he takes him in.

Ronan turns to look at him then, and Adam is caught staring. He doesn’t particularly care. 

Ronan tentatively takes Adam's hand and brings it to his mouth, his gaze on Adam like fire. Adam swallows, and Ronan puts his hand back. 

“So,” Ronan says, voice a little breathy, “What do you think? I think we had more momentum last time. Our angle might have been off tonight.” 

“Oh, I don’t know,” Adam murmurs, his fingers brushing Ronan’s wrist. “I think I prefer tonight.”

“And why’s that?” 

“Because now I can do this.” And then Adam props himself on his arm and kisses Ronan, bracing a hand on Ronan’s other side.

Ronan runs his fingers through Adam’s hair, and Adam slips one hand beneath Ronan’s sweater, feeling him shiver. It’s a little painful, with the rough gravel digging into Adam’s arms, but at that moment he can’t bring himself to mind.

They kiss slowly, their tongues dancing lazily and light breaths intermingling. Adam pulls back and takes in Ronan’s flushed cheeks and swollen lips. His eyes are wide, staring at Adam in something like worship.

“You know,” Ronan says, voice rough, “You could have done that back then, too.”

“Is that right? So you wouldn’t have minded?” Adam asks, grinning. 

“Definitely fucking not, Parrish.” 

Adam lightly traces Ronan’s cheekbone with his thumb. “I guess I was stupid, huh,” Adam says, soft and a little sad, “for not realizing sooner. For not doing _this_ sooner.”

“Fuck no. You took as much time as you needed, Adam. You could have taken even longer and it wouldn’t have mattered.” Ronan swallows, strangely vulnerable for a moment. “It _doesn’t_ matter. We… we’re here now.”

Adam kisses him in response, sweet and full of meaning. He still wishes he’d done this sooner, because now that he’s tasted it, he doesn’t know how he ever lived without it. It never feels like enough, either, and Adam is greedy.

Adam pauses to catch his breath, and then trails kisses down Ronan’s chin, his jaw, the line of his throat. Ronan’s breathing gets harsher, his hands tightening in Adam’s dusty hair. Adam noses along Ronan’s collarbone, his kisses gentler and sloppier than usual.

He doesn’t feel hungry, desperate, the way he usually does. He just wants to savor this moment, this night, this stillness inside him, this _thing_ that is shopping carts and moss-scented hand lotion and soft kisses to fingertips and black lines shaped like beaks and claws and nothing but quiet, quiet, quiet.

He eventually realizes that they’re two boys making out on the ground outside a grocery store, so he forces himself to pull back. “We should probably get back.” 

“Yeah,” Ronan agrees, kissing Adam one final time before they both stand up. 

They reach St. Agnes right before midnight, and Adam feels reluctant to get out of the car.

“You could just stay here tonight,” Adam tries. 

Ronan raises his eyebrows suggestively. “What, you want to make use of the new merchandise already?” 

Adam huffs and swats at Ronan’s arm, earning a sharp laugh from the other boy.

“In your dreams, Lynch. I’m not _that_ easy.” 

“Got that first part right,” Ronan mutters, unthinkingly. 

“Did I really?” Adam asks, smirking. Ronan startles when he realizes that he said that out loud or that Adam actually heard him or maybe both.

He’s a little pink when he scowls and says, “Shut up, asshole. Don’t you have homework to finish?” 

“Sure,” Adam agrees cheerily. He leans over and kisses Ronan, deep and lingering. 

Ronan’s eyes are closed when he leans back, his lips slightly parted.

“Night, Lynch,” Adam sighs against his mouth. 

“Goodnight, Adam,” Ronan says softly. 

When Adam collapses onto his mattress and closes his eyes, he is still.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are appreciated. Find me on [tumblr](http://adamparrush.tumblr.com) and [twitter](http://twitter.com/adamparrush).


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